Emergency workers in southwest Ethiopia scrambled yesterday to rescue thousands marooned by the latest in a series of deadly flash floods across the nation feared to have killed nearly 900 people.
With 876 people in southern, eastern and northern Ethiopia already reported dead or missing from flooding in the past two weeks, officials warned the toll was likely to climb higher with poor weather hampering relief operations.
Authorities appealed for international aid as search and rescue teams fought to help residents of 14 villages submerged by raging waters from the Omo River.
At least 364 people were drowned and up to 20,000 stranded in the region when the river and several tributaries swelled by heavy seasonal rains in the Ethiopian highlands burst their banks on Sunday.
Unable to reach affected areas by air, rescue workers, including swimmers and divers, were using boats in frantic attempts to reach those marooned amid fears that water-borne diseases like cholera may soon pose additional threats.
"The search and rescue teams have spent the night on the waters looking for survivors and bodies," said Tegaye Mununhe, chief police inspector for the Southern Omo region. "The search will continue day and night."
"We are now dispatching more boats with food, medicine, tents and health workers to evaluate the situation in places we have managed to reach," he told reporters by telephone, about 780km southwest of Addis Ababa.
"At the same time, we are dispatching another team to will help transport survivors we have already found to a higher ground," Tegaye said.
Overwhelmed by the crisis, regional authorities desperately sought outside help as UN agencies and private aid organizations pledged to assist.
"We are trying to do everything we can but the magnitude of the disaster is not something we can tackle by ourselves," Governor Shiferaw Shegute said late on Wednesday.
His appeal came after officials reported the number of deaths from the Omo River floods had nearly doubled from the previous toll of 194 with the recovery of 170 more bodies and said they expected a sharp rise in that figure.
"We are expecting the death toll to increase and we are preparing ourselves for more bodies, maybe even hundreds more," regional police spokesman Daniel Gezhegn said.
The flooding in the south came after rivers burst their banks in the east, where 256 people were killed last week and some 250 are still missing.
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
RSS